Lee joins Middleton with new police app for residents

LEE — What if you were about to leave work and head home when you got an alert on your iPhone. “Bad accident on Route 125 near the traffic circle. Take alternative route.”

Wouldn’t that be helpful? Now, that kind of information will be available to those who get a new phone app. The new means of communication between the police department and local residents is available this week with the launch of the LeePD smartphone application, available for iPhone for the first time.

Created by Middleton Police Sgt. Tim Brown, the application is useful not just for residents, (thought the setup was created with user-friendly modules) but for officers in the field.

“It’s definitely the way of the future,” Brown said.

The technology is fairly non-existent on the East Coast, but much more common on the West Coast, Brown said.

“It’s a great, great app. You did a great job,” Lee Police Chief Chet Murch told Brown recently.

Brown said he made a similar application for the Middleton Police Department after always hearing that people don’t quite understand what the officers do.

He said he even looked at the Lee Police Department’s Facebook page and started a page for his department, which he said was going really well, as is a Google blog page sharing a lot of the activity of the department.

The phone application is customizable for the department so it can change or add items affecting how the application looks.

iPhone users can find the app in the Apple iStore, and Android users will find the app in the Google Playstore.

Windows and BlackBerry® smartphones also have the capability of using the app, but without all the same functionality of the other two platforms.

Push notifications, voice messages, text, and photo sharing is some of what the app offers and also comes with built-in phone numbers for the Lee Police Department, 9-1-1 and State Police Troop A. Email, directions to the station on George Bennett Road, a Facebook icon and an option to tell a friend about the app is available as well.

One of the biggest advantages to the app is that the department can now reach the community outside of using Facebook since not all residents are Facebook users.

“Social media is kind of taking over,” Murch said.

Daily posts and interaction from residents on their Facebook page is proof of that.

“This is the way we’re actually reaching people now. It’s pretty clear that people are into social media,” he said.

He also said the department was looking for a bit of a changeover in how they use social media and Brown came forward to offer his assistance in making it better for them.

“It’s clear that people want to be informed and we want to inform people so this is the route we’re going to go,” he said.

He added that about 90 percent of Lee officers actually have smartphones they can upload the application to and send out notifications while working.

Brown taught himself how to write and use the code needed for creating an app like the one for Lee. He said it’s typically a 14-day process to create one.

This app, available for the first time on iPhone devices, was built from the ground up specifically for police department use. It took about three months to complete for the iPhone.